It makes no sense to raid food-stamp programs in order to fund child nutrition.

Our region’s children have returned to school, and Congress has resumed its work in Washington. One important item on its to-do list is Child Nutrition reauthorization, which governs Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); school meals; after-school and summer feeding programs; nutrition education. and more. Passage should be completed by Sept. 30, when the current law expires.

But at a time when one in four kids in the country and Pennsylvania rely on food stamps to get the nutrition they need to learn and grow, Congress may end up raiding the food-stamp program to fund child nutrition. In other words, we may wind up with a child-nutrition bill that provides kids with nutritious food at lunchtime – but removes the help families need to give their kids a decent dinner.

The Senate has already taken this route. In August, it passed the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act,” but offset the cost of the legislation by slashing $2.2 billion from families’ food-stamp benefits, in effect robbing Peter to pay Paul. These cuts are in addition to the $11.9 billion already eliminated from the program to provide critical aid to state governments to prevent teacher layoffs and to temporarily increase the federal share of Medicaid costs.

If the House follows the Senate’s lead, a family of four will lose $59 per month in food stamps beginning in November 2013. While these proposed cuts are not immediate, their impact will be real. Given the current economy, the increased competition for limited federal dollars, and recipients’ lack of political power, it is doubtful this funding will be restored.

Yet another risk: If Congress agrees on funding but still doesn’t pass a bill, it may simply put the legislation off until next year, as was done in 2009. This inaction delays – yet again – additional financial support needed to make important improvements to child-nutrition programs. It also leaves in limbo Philadelphia’s 20-year-old Universal Feeding “pilot” program, which makes free meals available to all students at the two-thirds of city public schools where there is a severe need.

Last year, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack decided to defer any decision on the program until Congress addressed Child Nutrition reauthorization. If Congress sloughs off its work, our state delegation’s efforts to make Universal Feeding permanent and available elsewhere could be in jeopardy.

Under each of these options kids lose. They lose if food-stamp cuts happen and if Child Nutrition reauthorization is abandoned until next year. As the Pew Charitable Trusts’ report “Reading, Writing, and Hungry” aptly stated in 2008, “When kids grow up undernourished, the architecture of their brains is changed, causing harm to their physical, mental, social, and emotional health throughout their lives.”

As we know all too well, the budgets of federal, state, and local governments – as well as families – are terribly strained. However, supporting child nutrition should not be controversial. Congress must summon the courage – and find the dollars – to provide the nutritional supports children need to succeed.

Kathy Fisher is an economic security associate with Public Citizens for Children and Youth. Julie Zaebst is the policy center manager for the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. They can be reached at kathyfisher@childrenfirstpa.org y jzaebst@hungercoalition.org.

Philadelphia Inquirer – September 21, 2010 – Leer artículo en línea